Really? That’s what an article in the New Your Times by Gina Kolata from 2007 stated.  I found this article the other day, and thought you might like to see it.   Not to be pessimistic; no, rather to be optimistic and a free-thinker, that becoming healthy isn’t all scientific.

Having written a book on weight loss, Ms. Kolata must know.  She’s also done extensive research.  I’m not disputing her, but I believe in miracles and possibilities.

The point she’s making is that weight loss is not just about dieting and exercising.  It’s also about one’s DNA and body set-points.  Those of us who have struggled to lose weight and maintain it know all about this, don’t we?

I like it that she’s not really blaming the “poor American diet” for the growing, alarming statistics on obesity.  We’ve eaten poorly for generations, she says.  That’s really true.

There are a lot of stats on how walking for 20 minutes a day won’t help.  There’s some negative notions that there are physiological traits that prevent us from losing weight.  Finally, the article states that we’re doomed to be obese from the moment of conception, in the womb.  What our mother ate during pregnancy affects our fat fate.  If mom ate less, or smoked we’ll be fat.

I actually agree with her, and the scientists she employs: I know from personal experience, my own research, and working with obese clients for over a decade – successfully.  There’s more to it.

What I don’t agree with is the assertion that it’s particularly difficult or almost impossible to lose weight.  What the article misses entirely are the psychological and spiritual components of recovery from obesity and overweight.  That’s where the miracles begin.

So far, science isn’t really able to concretely test or verify miracles or divine presence, much less actual divine intervention.  But I can firsthand say that God is very present, and He can, and will help.

Losing weight and permanent recovery from obesity becomes easy when you get beyond your DNA predispositions; beyond the purely physiological facts; beyond what your mother ate during your gestation.  Once you realize that it’s about all of those details PLUS uncovering the emotional needs that the obesity is serving and then surrendering your problems, resolving and retraining thoughts of isolation and separation, and connecting and aligning with God’s infinite and ultimately powerful reality.

I encourage you to exhaust all physiological elements of the obesity/overweight problem: know your family (DNA) history, research what it was like in your mother’s womb, start walking and moving, follow a structured food plan.  THEN, once you’ve come to the end-of-the-line and embraced the hopelessness, difficulties and negative possibilities, then ask God for help.  In other words, the worse your problems are the more you need miracles, the more room there is for divine intervention to finally, miraculously work.

I’ll be here when you reach that moment of total impossibility.

It would delight me to hear your comments on how impossible things are with your weight loss and desire to recover.  We’d all love to hear about your miracles, too, if you have them in your life.  PLEASE POST A COMMENT!

The excellent New York Times article by Gina Kolata is here. 

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